Nugget time

[fishrman]

After reading about Muebe's Nuggets, seeing all the pictures, and hearing the great accolades for the recipe, it was time to give it a try.  Problem was, I didn't have any of the ingredients.  No problem, thought I, that's why the internet was created.  Beef was going to be no problem, but the Soy Vay and Prague #1 were going to be a bit more of a challenge.  After a fair amount of web searching, found that the local Wallyworld showed they had the Soy Vay in stock.  Score!  I was going up to visit my grandbaby and the store was right on the way.  Stopped in and . . . nothing, nada, zip, zilch.  Poop.  OK, get out the smartphone and find there's another Wally's on the way so stopped there with the same results.  Not looking good.  So I get to the grandbaby's house, get on the computer, go to Amazon and order a 3-bottle pack.  Later during the visit get sent to the local Safeway to get some supplies and just for yuks, look on the Asian food aisle next to the soy sauce and . . . nope.  Oh well.  On the next aisle over as I'm crusing by the bottled BBQ sauces I look up and what do I find?  Yup.  Soy Vay Veri Very Teriyaki staring me right in the eyeball!  Snag a couple of bottles, dance a little jig (it was St. Patrick's day after all), and head on back. 

Now the missing ingredient was the Prague #1.  Internet searching for a local source turned up nothing.  We are here in the SF Bay area, so not a lot of hunting supply stores around.  All I could find was a Luhr Jensen Salt Cure.  Dang.  Had the beef, had the teriyaki sauce.  Placed and order for the Prague#1 on the internet but wouldn't be getting it for a week or so.  Driving home was stewing on this and thought about the Bradley Honey Cure I had at home.  I thought I'd seen a posting saying the two weren't substitutes for each other, but couldn't remember what the deal was.  When I got home, searched for that posting with no luck and put my own up asking the question.  Habs jumped in with a clear response, and so I just used the Bradley's according to container instructions instead of the Prague #1 figuring I was only using 1.5 Tbs, so the additional salt/sugar it contained wouldn't be a big deal considering there was a whole bottle of Soy Vay in the mix.

So, got the meat, got the marinade, got the cure for what was ailin' me.  This has got to be one of the simplest recipes I've ever found.  Biggest time was spent cleaning up the stew meat to get rid of silverskin and excess fat, and cubing it up into 1/2" - 3/4" cubes.  Dissolved the cure in some water and added in the Soy Vay mixing it all up completely. Then add in the meat and into the fridge for an overnight soaking:






Got up, turned on the BDS to 150F and pulled the meat out of the fridge.  I've got 8 racks; 4 that came with the smoker and have close to 1" square gaps and 4 jerky racks that have much smaller gaps.  This is all well and good but it turns out that they are different depths with the jerky racks being slightly deeper.  This turns out to be an issue since I've installed my recirc fan.  The jerky racks are *just* deep enough that they touch the fan blades, so I can't use the jerky racks on the lowest rack slide.  I wanted to use the jerky racks with the nuggets because the smaller gaps extend up the side and keep stuff from falling out.  So, the answer was to put the jerky rack in one of the original racks for the bottom position.  A bit of a pain when rotating, but a workable solution.  So down went the frogmats, on went the Pam, and in went the nuggets to the smoker:






Started at 150 and ran that for 6 hours with 2 hours of hickory.  Rotated 2 times during that period.  At 6 hours, basted with the Soy Vay, rotated one final time and turned the temp up to 170F for another 90 minutes.  At that point, took a peek, liked what I saw, snagged a sample (or two), and pronounced them done.  Out they came:








Gave a sample to the official taster wife, and she pronounced them better than the Jerky that she is so fond of.  Looks like a winner!   And as a bonus, I still have 3 bottle of Soy Vay coming my way and a bag of Prague #1.  Guess I'll just have to find a recipe to use them in.


Thanks Muebe, for sharing such a great recipe.

[JZ]

WOW Nice job and apparently worth the effort!

[Gizmo]

Those are a thing of beauty.

[muebe]

At first I thought the finished picture was of my batch  :o

Fantastic job! They look perfect and glad you like them ;)

[mikecorn.1]

Those look real good. Got a bottle myself nut no time to make any yet :(


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[ghost9mm]

Yes Sir...them look just like Mike's aka muebe...really a good job...

[fishrman]

Can't. Stop. Popping. The.  Nuggets.    Mmmmmmmm, good!!  If you haven't made these yet, you are in for a treat!

[OldHickory]

Those look great.  You did a GOOD JOB.

[watchdog56]

Those look great. What is the recipe? I tried looking in Susan Minors site but was not able to find it.

[Keymaster]

Looks excellent!!!

[fishrman]

Those look great. What is the recipe? I tried looking in Susan Minors site but was not able to find it.

Watchdog - go here:  http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=22854.0

[SiFumar]

When it passes the "official taster" you know you done good! Looks great!